War Profiteers

Iraq for Sale: The War Profiteers

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Iraq for Sale: The War Profiteers
Directed by	Robert Greenwald
Produced by	Robert Greenwald Sarah Feeley Jim Gilliam Devin Smith
Starring	Bud Conyers Janis Karpinski James Logsdon Bill Peterson Shane Ratliff Edward Sanchez
Music by	Tree Adams
Cinematography	Nick Higgins
Editing by	Carla Gutierrez Sally Rubin
Distributed by	Brave New Films
Release date(s)	2006
Running time	75 minutes
Country	U.S.A
Language	English
Budget	$368,000

Iraq for Sale: The War Profiteers is a 2006 documentary film made by Robert Greenwald and Brave New Films about the ongoing Iraq War and the behavior of companies with no-bid contracts working in Iraq.
Specifically, the film claims four major contractors - Blackwater, K.B.R.-Halliburton, CACI and Titan - are over-billing the U.S. government and doing substandard work while endangering the lives of American soldiers and private citizens. The documentary contends these companies are composed of ex-military and ex-government workers who unethically help their companies get and keep enormous contracts and milk the American taxpayer.
Halliburton contends the film is "yet another rehash of inaccurate, recycled information."^[1] During filming, Greenwald had requested interviews with the contractors, but they turned him down.

Contents [hide] 1 Production 2 Synopsis 3 Participants 4 References 5 External links

[edit] Production

This was the first film to raise substantial production funds from small donations online: $267,892 from 3,000 people in 10 days.^[2]

[edit] Synopsis

The film starts with a look at Blackwater contractors Scott Helveston and Jerry Zovko, who were killed in an ambush in Falujah due to company cost-cutting exercises. The film moves on to look at the involvement of poorly supervised private interrogators and untrained translators from CACI and Titan in the prisoner abuse scandal at Abu Ghraib. The loss of traditional military jobs, particularly in logistics, to private contractor KBR/Halliburton, who put workers like Tony Johnson and Steve Hullet in danger is analysed by the filmmakers, as is the costplus arrangement which encourages private contractors to overspend and overcharge for their services to ensure greater profits. Another major theme which reoccurs throughout the film is that of Corporations legally buying influence, through campaign contributions and a network of connections, at the highest levels of government which allows them to be rewarded sole-source contract without bidding and to cover-up their own failures.

[edit] Participants